Flu threat to Christmas poultry sales (From Western Telegraph)

Flu threat to Christmas poultry sales

Pembrokeshire's Christmas poultry industry could be under threat as bird flu continues to spread across Europe.

Turkey producers like Peter Rees, of Park Wall Farm, St Florence, buy poults in June and rear them for the Christmas market.

But as the net closes in on countries currently clear of the virus there is mounting concern over the availability of poults.

Peter Rees, a former chairman of the Welsh Turkey Breeders' Association, said he is not aware of any problem at present.

"My poult supplier telephoned me this week to ask how many I needed," he said. But he admits it will become an issue if the steps taken to eradicate bird flu become more widespread.

France is inoculating nearly a million free-range ducks and geese against the virus.

Jonathan Evans, Conservative MEP for Wales, argues that the use of poultry vaccines to guard against the spread of H5N1 bird flu will inflict huge costs on poultry farmers.

"The use of an injected poultry vaccine is frankly unrealistic. For it to work, every chicken would have to be injected twice in its lifetime and anybody who has tried catching free range chickens will know trapping them is almost impossible for the farmer and very distressing for the poultry," he said.

"What the European Union and the British Government should be focusing on is the development of a cost-effective vaccine that can be easily sprayed or placed in their water."

It would be a more realistic solution for producers like Peter Rees, he argues. Mr Rees said he would be willing to vaccinate his turkeys if it only needed to be done once during a bird's lifetime.

"If the cost is right and it can be administered at the poult stage I think it could be workable," he said.